Naso – Sh’vi’i

Ditto, Ditto

By Rabbi Jack Abramowitz

Finally, the leaders of Asher and Naftali present their offering. It’s noteworthy that (unlike these synopses) the Torah repeats the contents of the offering verbatim each time. This shows how beloved each of these gifts was to G-d. (Perhaps equally striking is the way in which each leader presented an identical gift, with none of the later participants succumbing to the normal human temptation to increase the size of his gift in an attempt to “one up” the others. The sincerity and unity is significant.)

At the end of the parsha, after the dedication of the altar, Moshe enters the Mishkan and G-d speaks to him from between the golden cherubs on the cover of the Ark.